French President Francois Hollande said on Friday he would carry out his pledge to withdraw combat forces from Afghanistan by the end of the year, two years earlier than previously planned. He made the declaration to US President Barack Obama in the Oval Office.
The leaders, meeting for the first time, also agreed that managing the eurozone debt crisis is critical to global financial health.
Obama said this weekend’s gathering of G8 economic powers at Camp David would promote a “strong growth agenda.”
Hollande, elected on May 6, is insisting on rethinking a European austerity treaty, but he is also -trying to convince Obama and other leaders at the G8 economic summit that his position will not worsen the debt crisis.
The US supports an expansion of growth or stimulus programs in combination with belt--tightening measures. However, Hollande is on record as wanting to go much further.
On Afghanistan, a compromise appeared likely that would see 3,300 French troops shift from combat roles earlier than once planned, but leave a French presence in Afghanistan in a different role.
Speaking after the White House meeting, Hollande said he stood by a campaign pledge to withdraw troops, but said France would keep supporting that country in a “different way.”
Hollande’s visit marked the start of four days of international summitry that amount to a national security debut for a leader with little international experience.
Obama was taking the measure of the new French leader whose campaign promises run counter to US policy on both economic issues and Afghanistan. The White House has stressed the areas of agreement and predicted Hollande would continue Sarkozy’s strong alliance with the US on Iran.
Hollande is trying to defend France’s interests while building a relationship with Obama, widely popular in France, but seen by some in Hollande’s camp as too friendly with the his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy.
“The stances that President Hollande took during the course of his campaign obviously he intends to keep as president, but I at this point frankly see a good relationship building,” national security adviser Tom Donilon said on Thursday.
Hollande’s campaign platform, released months ago, said he was committed to an “immediate withdrawal of our troops from Afghanistan: There will be no French troops in this country at the end of 2012.”
However, two weeks ago, at a news conference, he tempered that stance by saying French “combat units” would be out by the end of the year.
French troops have dug in, so getting out before the rest of NATO does would not be easy. France has about 900 vehicles, 1,400 industrial containers, plus Mirage fighters and helicopters in Afghanistan, French military spokesman Colonel Thierry Burkhard said.
Hollande’s foreign policy advisers suggest that could mean French advisers, or trainers for Afghan forces, remain after combat forces depart.
A senior US official said the early combat exits of Dutch and Australian troops are the model for a probable agreement with France. In those cases, trainers or other support forces were supplanting front-line combat forces. Such an agreement is likely to emerge from NATO discussions this weekend, the US official said.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS